


Chasm

by wanderwings



Category: Naruto
Genre: Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto) Feels, Dai-nana-han | Team 7 Dynamics (Naruto), F/M, Fourth Shinobi War, Gen, Introspection, Nostalgia, Originally Posted on Tumblr, i'm team 7 trash always, slight sasusaku - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-18 22:41:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28874748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanderwings/pseuds/wanderwings
Summary: The whole time, Kakashi looked at each of his students and their twelve-year old faces loomed in his mind, clear as day, as if it had only been yesterday when he had asked them about their likes and dislikes, their dreams even.
Relationships: Dai-nana-han | Team 7 & Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura & Hatake Kakashi & Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke
Comments: 2
Kudos: 31





	Chasm

**Author's Note:**

> Old Team 7 fic based on Naruto chapter 675. <3

A swooshing sound, like air being sucked into a different space, reached his ears. Kakashi swiveled his head to the source, wincing slightly as a fresh pool of blood oozed out of his left eye socket where a Sharingan eye had been. Warm liquid dribbled down his cheek but he paid no mind to it. His lone eye passed by Sasuke quickly before settling on a swirling distortion in space. A hint of pink emerged from the distortion and relief swelled inside his chest like a balloon―Sakura was safe.

“Sakura!” Her name tumbled out of his lips. Owing to his compromised vision, he didn’t see Sasuke stiffen almost imperceptibly beside him.

Sakura landed on the rubble with a groan. She recognized Kakashi’s voice. “Kakashi-sensei,” she spoke before finally realizing she had just been transported back into the real world by Obito’s Kamui. It happened so fast―she had just glimpsed Madara a few heartbeats ago in the other dimension and then she was gripped, seized into a vacuum in space, back to the here and now.

Debris was digging into the palm of her hand. She looked up and her green eyes widened in surprise at the sight before her: Uchiha Sasuke was standing adjacent to their sensei, looking at her with perplexity on his face. If she weren’t so used to the nuances of his almost perpetually-stoic face, she wouldn’t have recognized the expression he wore now. But she was―just another one of the many things about him she couldn’t let go of.

“Sasuke-kun!” And even now, the endearing suffix refused to budge. Almost everything about him was second nature to her, and yet she feared she didn’t know him at all.

She squashed that fear now; there was no time for it in a war like this.

“Why is Sakura here suddenly?” His voice carried across, towards her. Her heart clenched at the sound of his voice saying her name.

“She was in the other dimension,” Kakashi replied. She nearly forgot he was there. “Sakura, how are things there?”

Green eyes turned to look at Kakashi. The sight of the blood flowing from his left eye socket immediately took hold of her attention.

“Kakashi-sensei, your left eye…!?” A combination of fear and anger bloomed in her chest; she felt like she knew what had transpired. For a long moment, she wanted to pummel the enemy so hard until he pulverized. She badly wished she could.

Kakashi brought a gloved hand to his bloodied face. “It happened in an instant. Madara stole away my Sharingan.” Obito’s Sharingan, he corrected in his mind. He felt the worry seep into his veins at the thought of his old teammate, Obito. He was in the other dimension―alone with Madara.

Sakura had closed the distance and was now reaching out a hand to his face. For a second, Kakashi hesitated to remove the gloved hand covering his eye socket.

“Let me see,” she said firmly, frowning slightly.

“Sorry.” Kakashi obliged, his hand falling to his side in resignation.

Sasuke watched the exchange silently, his open eye drawn towards the pink-haired medic-nin. The firmness in her voice snagged at him like a hook.

“What happened to Obito? Madara went there using Kamui.”

Her hands glowed green with healing chakra. Sakura inclined her head to the side. “Eh? I suddenly found myself here.”

And then it finally sunk into her that Madara had transported himself to the other dimension in order to retrieve his other Rinnegan eye from Obito. Sakura froze, recalling what Obito had told her about the Rinnegan.

Kakashi’s lone eye scanned Sakura’s face. “What’s the matter, Sakura?”

In a rush, Sakura relayed to Kakashi and Sasuke what occurred in the other dimension: Obito had wanted her to crush the Rinnegan he had because it was overpowering him. He knew Madara would come to get it back, that was why she needed to destroy it before. Otherwise, if he ever got the chance to retrieve it, the Rinnegan would show its true, complete power, and nobody would be able to defeat the elder Uchiha.

When she finished, Kakashi bore a grim look on his face. Sasuke was frowning―his eyebrows were slightly drawn and his lips were set into a thin line. She recognized that look from back in their genin days whenever he had gathered enough intelligence on the enemy: a look of vigilance and calculation.

How did she know so much about him and yet it wasn’t enough? Was it ever enough?

Finally, Kakashi broke the ensuing silence and yanked her from her thoughts. “I see. So Obito said that.”

“He could come back at any time. Don’t let your guard down,” Sasuke said, his features smoothing back to his stoic mask.

Sakura nodded, but Sasuke didn’t catch the movement. He had sensed Naruto arriving, his familiar warm chakra in tow. He turned his head in his direction. “What happened to his shadow?”

Before Naruto’s sandaled feet could touch the ground, he answered, “I blocked it with a Kage Bunshin and the Sage’s rod!”

The cheerful voice drew Sakura’s attention and relief washed over her at the sight of his glowing form. “Naruto?” She called to him, still quite incredulous that he was alive. It was a miracle, and she owed it to Obito. Obito! He was deep in danger and they had to do something. He saved Naruto. He saved her. She owed him so much.

Naruto grinned at her before his eyes reached Kakashi; Sakura was still stemming the blood flow, her chakra mending the ruptured blood vessels.

The look on Naruto’s face sobered and he knew instinctively what Madara had done. He placed a hand gently on Sakura’s arm. “Hey, Sakura-chan. Can I do something…?” He asked tentatively. She looked at him in question but her hands lifted off their sensei. Kakashi started to ask, curious as to what he was planning to do when Naruto put his right hand on his left eye socket, covering it completely. He caught a glimpse of a circle on his palm.

“What are you trying to do, Naruto?” Sakura asked, a hint of impatience in her voice.

Naruto smiled reassuringly. “I tell you, it’s okay.” Then he lifted his hand.

The pain vanished completely, and his left eye socket felt curiously normal. Kakashi couldn’t resist the hope that opened up like a well inside of him.

“Kakashi-sensei, try to open your eye.”

And he dared give into that hope. Slowly, his eyelid lifted to reveal a normal eye.

His vision no longer compromised, Kakashi could see perfectly again, without a Sharingan baring the chakra flow of the people in his line of sight.

An audible gasp escaped from Sakura’s lips. “No way! How did you do that?” Her hand flew to her mouth in utter shock.

Naruto rubbed his chin. “Well, it’s kinda hard to explain it. It’s like I took a part of Kakashi-sensei… And kinda… Ummm..” He trailed off.

Sasuke sighed, but all three of them were too caught up with Kakashi’s regenerated eye to pay attention. “I said not to let your guard down, Naruto,” he said flatly.

“Hah? You never told me that!” Naruto replied, crossing his arms on his chest defiantly.

Sakura brought a hand to her face, exasperated. “Uff! It’s not the time for that, Naruto! More importantly, tell me about that eye.”

“Madara stole Kakashi’s eye to go to Obito’s place. He’s going to come out with both Rinnegans,” Sasuke interjected matter-of-factly.

Naruto’s mouth flew open in surprise. “Eh? Really?!”

The whole time, Kakashi looked at each of his students and their twelve-year old faces loomed in his mind, clear as day, as if it had only been yesterday when he had asked them about their likes and dislikes, their dreams even.

And he saw the chasm created by the years since they became genin. He saw the differences between the children they were and the people they had become, and, more importantly, he saw the growth in the way only a sensei could.

Kakashi looked at Naruto and saw the loud-mouthed boy who dreamed of being acknowledged by everyone and becoming Hokage. Now, he was a man, clad in the golden form of the Sage’s power. He had already surpassed the Hokage level and had been recognized by everyone as a hero, and yet, he still dreamed of finally becoming a Hokage himself.

His gaze traveled to Sakura and he saw the long-haired girl who was head-over-heels for the last Uchiha, the girl who needed protecting. Now she could protect herself without anybody’s help, and she had grown into a strong woman―perhaps even stronger in heart and mind than anyone else in Team 7. Kakashi knew, with an instinct that ran bone-deep, that Sakura still felt for Sasuke, but not in the same way she had back when she was twelve. He could see it in the way her green eyes looked at him, could hear it in the way she said his name. Even if Sasuke had tried to kill her, she now stood in front of him with trust. This girl, now a woman, carried a kindness that was transcending.

Finally, his vision landed on Sasuke and he saw himself in that twelve-year old boy. Sasuke had been the boy with so much indignation in his heart; he was the boy who had set himself on fulfilling one goal―to kill his brother, Itachi, who had murdered his entire clan. Now that Sasuke had accomplished it, Kakashi was completely clueless as to what his student’s present goal was or in what direction he was heading to. Even though he was Sasuke’s sensei, he still could not figure him out.

“Sasuke, what’s your current dream?” Kakashi asked him, his tone serious.

The conversation between his three students came to an abrupt halt, as if the words had hit a wall. Dead-end. The silence that seeped into the atmosphere was heavy with dread and anticipation―his teammates had been waiting so long to ask him this very question, and now their sensei had finally voiced it out.

Sasuke didn’t speak.

Gathering courage from deep within her, Sakura spoke, “You said ‘becoming Hokage’. What’s the real meaning behind that?” It almost ached to ask him, because she didn’t know what his real intentions were and at the back of her mind, she feared he might change his mind and leave them again.

She couldn’t imagine being left behind by him again, and she knew she was being selfish by even thinking such. But she dared to hope.

Naruto and Kakashi looked at him, both faces set in a stony mask which belied the fact that they, too, were hopeful.

Sasuke wasn’t expecting to have this conversation right now. They were in a war! Wasn’t it more important to overcome the enemy than to discuss his dream? He met each of their eyes, and his gaze lingered a moment longer on her green stare.

Right now, he just really wanted to get this war over with.

And then, he would change the system of the shinobi world, the very system which had perpetrated hatred and war, the very system that had caused the demise of his clan.

Perhaps it was even the underlying reason that drove him to leave his team―almost his family―behind. Ever since his brother died, regret piled upon regret. All that he knew was that he didn’t want to add anymore to that mountain.

Kakashi broke the seemingly interminable silence, the space where Sasuke’s words should have been. “It might be destiny that Team 7 is together once again. Sasuke, if you don’t want to tell us what you’re actually thinking now, it’s okay. However, the fact that we were once Team 7 doesn’t change, correct?”

Sakura wanted to say something―anything. She wanted to wring the words out of him, but what could she do?

She would put her faith in him. This time, something was different with Sasuke, and she would hold on to that. She would hope this change would bring him back to the right path. Back to Konoha. Back to home.

Naruto fought the urge to grin knowingly like an idiot. He knew Sasuke had changed and he was proud of him. Sasuke: his comrade, his friend, his brother. He had been entrusted with the Sage’s power, just like himself. Together, they would be able to defeat Madara and finally change the shinobi world. He refused to believe otherwise.

A swooshing sound, like air being sucked into a different space. Team 7 turned to look at the source, holding their breaths, ready for the battle that was about to begin.

“He’s coming,” Kakashi said. He watched as his students tensed, and even though Madara was impossibly strong, he knew these three were stronger on so many levels. This was his team, his family, and he trusted them completely. Even Sasuke, who had gone astray―he believed in him.

“Do you remember your first mission, snatching away the bells?” He asked them before Madara could completely materialize. “You haven’t forgotten my lesson, right?”

None of them looked at their sensei, but they heard the hope in his voice, in the way he let go of his syllables.

“Yeah,” Sakura replied, her eyes locked on the distorted space.

“Hm,” Sasuke murmured.

Naruto allowed himself a smirk. “Of course! Teamwork!”

The dynamics of Team 7 were so familiar to all of them that in spite of the dire situation, it felt like coming home. Sasuke almost smiled. He felt his dream taking shape and it would start with this.


End file.
